(b Cologne, 19 May 1856; d Berlin, 1 May 1930)
German sculptor. He was apprenticed as a mason in Cologne and in 1874 attended sculpture classes at the Akademie der Bildenden K?nste in Munich. In 1878-9 he completed his studies at the Berlin Staatliche Hochschule f?r Bildende K?nste under Fritz Schaper. From 1879 he exhibited regularly at the Akademie der K?nste, receiving his first small commissions for sculpted decoration at this time. He achieved recognition with Spring (marble, 1889; Essen, priv. col.; for illustration see 1984-5 exh. cat., p. 75) and assisted Reinhold Begas with his monument to Emperor William I in Berlin (bronze, 1892-7; destr. 1950). In 1898 he was admitted to the Akademie, after having received medals for Adam and Eve (original plaster cast, 1894, Munich, priv. col.; bronze copy, 1912, Karlsruhe, priv. col.; for illustration see Bloch, Einholz and Simson, 1990) and "Suffer the little children to come unto me" (marble, 1897). Sculptures such as these were popular and were frequently rendered in multiples in marble and bronze. He became a much sought-after sculptor of monuments who moved beyond an initial neo-Baroque phase to an appreciation of the classically inspired works of Adolf von Hildebrand. This development can be traced through several of his works: the series of monuments to Johann Sigismund (marble, 1898-1901; destr. 1954), formerly in the Siegesallee, Berlin, the statue of Otto von Bismarck (bronze, 1900) for Breslau [now Wroclaw, Poland], the monument to Emperor William I (bronze, 1901) in Halle and the National Monument (1906-7) for Memel [now Lithuania]. He achieved his artistic zenith in 1910 with the first version of the seated statue of Ludwig van Beethoven. A second version followed in 1916, and it was finally cast in bronze in Bonn in 1938, eight years after his death. The monument to Otto Lilienthal (bronze, 1912-14; Berlin) is his last work based on the human image. From 1892 he was a teacher at the Staatliche Hochschule in Berlin and was K?niglicher Preussischer Professor in 1896 and Academic Professor and Senator at the Akademie from 1905 to 1927. One of his most important students was Rudolf Belling.
